business growth Archives - Page 14 of 17

Setting Yourself Up For Success: Succession Planning

Building a business from the ground up is no small feat. It requires patience, commitment, and most of all, strategy. It’s like they say – if you fail to plan, you can plan to fail. So much of business growth is about strategic planning: you need an investment strategy, a growth strategy, a recruitment strategy, and more. One thing that often falls by the wayside is succession planning: building a clear framework for hiring, recruiting, and training top-tier employees who can progress up the chain of command. Succession planning is critical for smooth transitions and uninterrupted business as roles within the company evolve and positions are vacated.

illustration of two people sitting at a table with two blue speech bubbles — *You will be able to find, recruit, train, and retain high quality employees to support your business for the long term.*

A Strategic Step

Succession planning is one of the first steps you should take when making your business plan. Planning for growth and turnover means that you will be able to find, recruit, train, and retain high quality employees to support your business for the long term. Organizations of all sizes need succession planning, as employees, position requirements, and duties can all change at the drop of a hat. If your business can’t adapt to these changes, then it can’t grow.

Succession planning calls for recruiting employees that you are going to train for advancement and promotion to higher positions within the company. In order to begin this process, you should have a clear plan to develop their knowledge, skills, and certifications. This might include temporarily transferring them to different jobs or departments, having them participate in multidisciplinary projects and on-the-job shadowing, as well as sending them to relevant training seminars or investing in educational materials.

Despite the time and investment all of this requires, there are bottom-line benefits to having a succession plan. A clear succession plan serves as a recruiting tool for strong, growth-oriented employees, who will appreciate knowing where their career with your organization is headed. This minimizes turnover, as new hires are more likely to stay with an organization where they can grow and learn. Additionally, by recruiting and cross-training employees for multiple positions within the organization, you prevent key responsibilities from falling through the cracks if employees resign or take a sudden leave of absence. Consider how much smoother the transition to finding a new employee would be when using a cross-trained employee to pick up the slack, as opposed to using a temporary worker.

5 Steps for Successful Succession Planning

Succession planning should be assessed regularly and your plan should evolve to meet the needs of your organization. There are some key steps that you can take to make the process easier and more effective:

Identify growth goals. A truly strategic succession plan requires knowing the vision and values of your organization. These will inform where your company is heading, and your succession plan can then include the roles and skills your organization will need to achieve these goals.

Assess the employees you have, any potential gaps, and communicate with candidates.

Be proactive. There might be times when you know that a valuable team member is leaving the company, but other times you could be caught off guard and left scrambling to replace them. You should spend time evaluating each employee’s key roles and discern what their day-to-day impact is. This can help you become aware of how a sudden departure might affect your businesses’ operations. After identifying these potential gaps in staff, you have a foundation upon which to build a succession plan.

Take inventory. Assessing your current employees is an important aspect of your succession plan. It’s useful to know which employees in your organization are potential leaders, and what skills they currently offer. The general rule is that there should always be someone to fill in, should an employee depart suddenly (see step 2!). If you do identify skills gaps, then think about beefing up your professional development programs. It’s never too late to start offering learning opportunities for your staff through on-the-job shadowing, a mentoring program, or incentives for completing relevant training or seminars. By building a multifaceted and adaptable team, you are setting yourself and your employees up for success.

Communicate with candidates. Once you understand what skills you have and what skills you need, you should inform potential candidates of opportunities for them to rise within your organization. While you must be careful not to make empty promises, you can have private meetings with them to discuss their careers, training, and personal development goals, as well as how you plan to support their continued success within your organization. Be open about what qualities in them have led you to consider them for advancement, and give them an opportunity to let you know whether they would even be interested in taking on a new role.

Prioritize retention. Having systems in place to retain your employees helps ensure that your training, time, and investment in staff advancement are worth it. Offering high quality professional development, financial incentives, and a clear plan for employee growth are all great ways to retain your talented staff.

Succession planning should be a key aspect of any growing business. It is important to have employees who are highly skilled and adaptable to fill any potential gaps that arise as your business expands! By recruiting, training, and retaining high quality employees who can move up through the ranks, you will save time and money in the long run.

Expanding Your Business? EZ’s Got You Covered

If your business is really taking off, and you’ve decided to expand, then you’ll need to start thinking about updating your commercial insurance policies. When you first started your business, you purchased the right amount of commercial insurance, but as your business grows and changes, so do your insurance needs. The last thing you want is to lose your business due to outdated or insufficient coverage. There are a few situations in which you need to rethink your commercial insurance coverage.

Adding A New Service

orange round sticker with the word new on it in white — *Adding services to your business does not mean that they are automatically covered by your current commercial insurance policy.*

As your business expands, you might decide to offer new services to your customers. Adding services to your business does not mean that they are automatically covered by your current commercial insurance policy; if you don’t update your policies, you are likely to end up with gaps in your coverage. For example, if you are adding an online service, then you will need to make sure that you get the correct cyber liability insurance.

Unfortunately, many business owners make the mistake of thinking that their general liability policy covers all liability, but this is not the case. Commercial general liability is not likely to cover all the threats that come with conducting business over the internet, such as data breaches. If your company’s information were hijacked, the cost of recovery could be astronomical, and the loss of customers and your reputation could be even more damaging.

Adding other services could also mean needing more professional liability than you currently have. This type of policy is necessary for any business that offers a professional service or regularly gives advice to clients. Let’s say, for example, that you decide to start offering workshops for customers through your business – in this case, you’ll probably need more liability insurance.

If you’re unsure whether you have the right coverage for your expanding business, EZ will go over your current policies to make sure that you are fully covered. We will evaluate all of your current commercial insurance policies, including general liability, BOP, professional liability, and workers compensation insurance. Then we will determine what you need to add on in order to be fully insured without any gaps that could damage your business.

Adding Multiple Locations

Hooray, your business is growing so much that you need to open another location! When adding multiple locations to your business, you have to keep several things in mind, such as:

What is the surrounding area like? Do you need more security, such as cameras or metal shutters? Could the weather in the new location lead to property damage?
Have employees been given the same guidelines and training as at those in the primary location?
What is the risk of injury to third parties at all locations?

Once you answer these questions, you can assess your new needs. To cover your multiple locations, you’ll probably need more commercial property insurance. In addition, adding more employees means you’ll also need to re-evaluate your workers compensation and employee liability insurance. Each location should have its own set of business insurance policies that meets each of its specific needs.

Upgrading Your Business’ Equipment

2 computer screens with a cell phone and headphones — *If you do not upgrade your insurance when you upgrade your equipment, then you might not have enough coverage for the new items.*

Have you recently upgraded all of your computer systems at your business? Have you added more equipment to your office? If so, then your current insurance policy might not include the correct amount of protection for the equipment. If you do not upgrade your insurance when you upgrade your equipment, then you might not have enough coverage for the new items if they are damaged or stolen. The last thing anyone wants is for a very expensive item to get stolen or damaged without any protection to cover the costs of repairing or replacing it. One of our agents will go over all of your upgraded equipment and machinery, and make sure that you are covered properly.

Depending on your type of business, you are likely to need multiple types of commercial insurance coverage. And as your business grows, your commercial insurance coverage needs will change, as well. In order to make sure you have adequate coverage, you need to have an agent that knows what kind of coverage you need and how much of it you should have. EZ’s agents are trained to make sure your most important asset, your business, is secured with comprehensive coverage. If you are looking to increase your insurance coverage, or find out if your business has enough insurance for your current situation, our agents can help you determine that free of charge. To get started, enter your zip code in the bar above, or to speak to an agent call 888-615-4893.

“Mompreneur” Mindset Tips

“Mompreneurs” are powerful women who run businesses and households. Separately, each of these jobs is daunting and exhausting, so combining them is not for the faint of heart. Women who are raising children while growing a business can face incredible rates of burnout, but there are ways to keep yourself centered no matter what your complicated life throws at you. Many successful mompreneurs agree that the most important thing you can do is step back and take a close look at your mindset. Your mindset matters more than you might think, so taking the time to cultivate a positive mompreneur mindset can mean the difference between meeting your goals and burning out.

Two Mindsets

Your mindset directly contributes to your goals, and your ability to achieve them. Many psychologists believe that there are two types of mindsets: fixed, and growth.

People with a fixed mindset believe that the circumstances of one’s life are based on the personal qualities we are born with, and remain fixed and unchangeable. This type of mindset creates a constant need to prove oneself to others and to seek reassurance and outside approval. When people with a fixed mindset encounter hardship, they are likely to give up.
Those with a growth mindset, however, believe in the ability to develop and strengthen positive traits at any stage of life through perseverance and hard work. People with a growth mindset have a desire to be their best, tackling challenges and learning new things.

Psychologists argue that to excel at anything you need a growth mindset: the mindset that hungers for more, thrives in challenges, and faces daunting tasks with resilience and pride. Know who has those traits? Mompreneurs. To wake up everyday faced with a growing business and a busy family requires all of those skills, and a positive, growth-focused mindset is really the only way to survive and thrive!

clover taped to a white wall. — *Do you believe we make our own luck?*

What’s Your Mindset?

Which mindset do you currently have? Ask yourself these five questions:

True or false: There are no mistakes, just lessons to learn.
True or false: Learning doesn’t end when you finish school.
True or false: We make our own luck.
True or false: I can do anything I set my mind to.
True or false: It’s better for me to do something on my own than to take a handout.

Answering “true” to all of the above means that you have a growth mindset, and even though every day might not be good, you probably find the good in every day. If you answered “false” to any of these, it might be time to reevaluate your perspective. Who is going to believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself?

How To Cultivate A Mompreneur Mindset

When you’re wearing many hats, like running a business while raising a family, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and like you never have the time (or energy!) to tend to your personal development. Unfortunately, if you don’t carve out the time to care for yourself and align your mindset with your goals, you run the risk of burning yourself out. That’s where a growth mindset comes in. By believing that you have what it takes to do hard things, striving for growth, and valuing learning experiences, you empower yourself to do your very best, despite sometimes feeling overwhelmed!

If a growth mindset doesn’t come naturally for you, that’s okay. Do-it-all mompreneurs recommend the following five strategies for successfully improving your mindset, prioritizing personal development, and avoiding burnout.

Forget about perfectionism. Sometimes, we give 100% just to have something flop. Your goal should always be progress, not perfection. Make one more sale than last quarter. Finish one more deliverable than last week. Check one thing off your to-do list. Your life is not going to look like anyone else’s, especially not that of a high-ranking CEO who barely sees their family. Your “best day” is going to look different from everyone else’s, and that’s okay! Drop the perfectionism, stop comparing yourself, and focus on #2…
Reflect with gratitude. Take a moment, right now, and think of something you’re grateful for. Now… think of something about yourself that you’re grateful for. You can’t pour from an empty cup, so give yourself the praise you deserve! You are the one creating your own successes, overcoming barriers, and making your (and your family’s) lives better. The best way to motivate yourself is to pause and reflect on how far you’ve come. Celebrate goals, big and small, and squash the voice in your brain that tells you you have to be “perfect”.
Take time for yourself. Celebrate your successes everyday. Call it self-care: a “reward” can be as luxe as a mani-pedi, or as laid back as a home-cooked dinner. Whatever it is, remind yourself that you deserve whatever it takes to make you feel good and relaxed.
Never stop learning. Mompreneurs and CEOs alike agree that personal and professional development is a life-long process. Learning leaves you inspired, curious, and filled with new ideas. Read a book, listen to a podcast, or attend a seminar related to your field.
Stick to your goals. The most successful people are constantly setting new goals and reevaluating their past goals. Having fresh, exciting goals can keep you motivated and on track, while evaluating past goals for relevance and attainability keeps you from feeling overwhelmed or burned out.

These mindset tips will not instantly change your life. There’s no overnight fix. They won’t magically transform you into a supermom/supermompreneur. But the point is, that you’re already a supermom. These five small adjustments will just help you step into your potential, take control of your attitude, and harness the power of a positive, growth-focused mindset so you can recognize your own successes.

4 Tips For Effective Recruiting

The time has come to hire a new employee! Maybe you’re expanding your business, realizing you can’t use interns for full time labor, or replacing an employee who has moved on. Whatever the reason, the hiring process can be time consuming and stressful. Be ready for a longer to-do list as you sort through applications, hold interviews, form an offer, complete paperwork, and train your new employee. If just thinking about all of these tasks is zapping your energy, don’t worry: there are a few things you can do to streamline the recruiting process and recruit new talent more efficiently.

silhouette of a hand picking up a green silhouette og a man in a suit — *Reaching out to experienced applicants on LinkedIn or posting an ad on a local college’s hiring board will help you find the best.*

1. Be choosy about where you recruit

If you post jobs on websites like Glassdoor and Indeed, it is likely you will receive a lot of applications, most of which will end up in the trash. Talent managers suggest digital outreach as the best alternative, such as reaching out to experienced applicants on LinkedIn or posting an ad on a local college’s hiring board. As a small business, digital outreach might even mean making posts on your social media channels, and recruiting interested applicants through the online community you’ve built.

2. Incentivize referrals

Internal referrals from happy employees can be one of the best methods of recruiting. Your best employees might know someone they went to school with, have a colleague in the field who’s seeking employment, or even have their own networking connections. Offering a financial reward for recruiting a quality employee is a great way to increase your job search returns without expending much effort.

3. Plan Your Interviews

Treat your interviews like you would any meeting among professionals. It’s important to remember that candidates are interviewing you, too! Be clear about your expectations, and give the candidate the chance to let you know what their expectations are, as well. A little behind-the-scenes planning can help you decide if they’re the right fit for your business, and leave them confident that you’re the right fit for them. Questions to consider when preparing:

Are you prioritizing someone who will be a good fit with the office, or who’s got the best skills for the job?
What exactly are the responsibilities of this position?
What questions are most relevant for this particular candidate?
What are some of the challenges of this role?

4. Keep the whole team involved.

This last step can be easily overlooked – your staff are busy, the candidate is busy, and group interviews can feel uncomfortable. But for long term retention, it’s a good idea to get a sense of how your current employees would work with your new hire. Prepare your staff ahead of time by sharing the candidates’ resume or cover letter, and ask them to think of 3-5 questions to ask the applicant. You should also ask them for feedback on the role, if you haven’t already, as they will know best what skills the position requires.

The Ideal Candidate Is Worth The Wait

Hiring isn’t just about filling a gap in your workforce. Don’t settle for a candidate who isn’t a great fit for your business, and don’t rush to fill the position. You could end up disrupting the culture of your workplace and having to go through the whole hiring process again. Your business deserves an employee who is going to contribute to a positive and productive work environment, retain their value by staying with the company, and boost your bottom line. Be patient, use our tips for recruiting more effectively, and you will have a much greater chance of building a five-star team that will stick around. They are definitely worth the wait.

Building Your Brand: Social Media Marketing 105

Businesses big and small all use social media to connect and communicate with their customers. Many bigger businesses pay for a social media strategist, but we believe you can handle the basics on your own! In “Building Your Brand: Social Media Marketing” editions 101-104, we covered the basics of social media, building your brand, and how to gain traffic with search engine optimization. Now that you’ve got your social media profiles up and running, we’ll take the skills you’ve learned and put them to work creating high quality, desirable content for your viewers.

Experts in social media marketing agree that content is the single most important factor in your brand’s online presence. But it’s not as simple as snapping a photo and uploading it to your page. There are over 3 billion people active on social media, including your customers and colleagues. If you want your clients to engage with your content, you have to make your posts stand out.

Give The People What They Want

There’s not one formula for creating high quality content, and not one thing that makes people share a post. What works for one brand might cause your business to lose followers. You have to know your audience, and what they want. The New York Times published a study about social media engagement, highlighting factors that motivate people to share content. The study found that people use social media shares to:

woman with hijab on looking at her phone smiling — *Grab potential customers with emotional content that draws them to you.*

Define themselves to others
Engage with valuable and entertaining content
Grow and nourish relationships
Spread the word about products and causes they care about

The study also found that for people to engage with it, content must be inspirational, meaningful, or informational. Your content should convey:

Emotion: If something isn’t emotional, we tend to pass it by. Even content that fills the reader with sorrow, or fear, will gain more engagement than something shallow.

Humanity: We all crave connection! Storytelling is a great way to forge relationships virtually. Tell the story of your business, a product, or your community to create relatable content that makes people feel good when they read it.

Information: Posts that offer insight or information get shares at incredible rates, across niches and platforms. Posting how-to videos, educational blogs, or an infographic can boost your views, and establish you as an expert in your field.

The bottom line? Create authentic, evocative content and the rest will fall into place. But in case it doesn’t, we’ve compiled some of the best tips and tricks for engaging, shareable content.

Tips and Tricks

Engage, engage, engage! When someone mentions you, tags you in a post, or shares your content, respond to them as quickly as you can! That might be as simple as a thank you, or it could involve some problem-solving customer service. Either way, it shows that you care about your clients and will help to get your name out there.
Engage right away when you get a notification and do not be afraid to seek feedback!

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Humans are simple creatures. We see something attractive, we like it, we share it. It really is that simple: posts with images are 150% more likely to be shared than those with just text. They also have an engagement rate that is 40% higher than posts without images.

Don’t be afraid to go live. People love engaging with live action. Studies show that brands who go live see views grow by 113%, so it might be time to get over your stage fright! Going live doesn’t have to be a scripted performance. You can pop on quickly to introduce a new product or service or give a demonstration, or go for a lengthier live post showing “a day in the life” or a tour of your workspace.
Seek feedback. Customers love to have their voices heard. Try hosting an “Ask Me Anything”, posting a poll, or sending out a survey.

Put a face on it. Keep it personal by highlighting the individuals who make your businesses tick. You can share a client success story, or post a weekly staff profile.

Share customer content. Sharing content from your community shows that you value their posts, and gives you a break from creating your own content. You can ask people to share photos of your product or service using your branded hashtag, and then reshare their creative images. Since user-generated content is voluntarily produced by real-life consumers, it feels more authentic, and can boost your credibility.

It’s a well known fact that social media trends come and go. Videos and blogs go viral for about a week, and the creators are never heard from again. But the strategies we have given you are tried and true, and will help you keep creating content that gets noticed and shared. These tips and tricks will help you form human connections with your customers and community, and these connections will last much longer than a video of a grumpy cat.

Is Hiring An Intern The Right Move?

Do you remember your first internship? For many business school graduates, an internship is a rite of passage. And now, the tables have turned and you’re in a position to supervise a young up-and-comer! For some business owners, having an intern sounds like an ideal situation – an extra set of hands who are bright, young, and eager-to-please. In addition, you could end up with a new, ready-trained employee. Surveys have found that 52% of businesses end up hiring their interns after graduation, which can save you the time and money it takes to recruit and train new employees! But supervising an intern is a little more involved than you might think, and it requires time and investment. You should consider the pros and cons of hiring an intern before deciding to take one on.

An Intern Can Be An Asset

There are a lot of benefits to having a college-age worker in your office. What they might lack in professional experience, they make up for in new ideas and unique perspectives. Young interns can offer:

Innovative ideas: Despite being young and perhaps inexperienced, college students can bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to your business. They are immersed in current research through their coursework, and are very likely up-to-date on industry trends.
Varied skill sets: A college student might bring some very useful skills to the table when they join your team. For example, you could have your intern focus on social media if they have a strong background in that area. Having an intern take the reins will help boost your online presence without the hefty price tag of an outside contractor.
Employee test drive: Internships have a predetermined end date, but if the intern is doing well and seems to be a good match for your business, you can easily transition them from intern to employee. They are already trained, acclimated to the culture of your office culture, and working on projects.
Future recruiting: Your intern’s network becomes your network. Even if you don’t extend a job offer to them, their word-of-mouth referrals are an easy way to recruit prospective employees from their college.

Tips For A Mutually Beneficial Internship

If you decide that an intern is right for your business, there are some steps you can take to ensure that the arrangement benefits both you and your intern.

Assign a task manager: While you should still offer your intern chances to receive feedback and mentorship directly from you, you should assign them a task manager with whom they can check in daily. Interns should be encouraged to reach out to and collaborate with anyone on the team, but by giving them a point person you provide much-needed direction.
Give them a list of tasks: It might take some extra planning on your end, but giving your intern a list of tasks and projects right at the beginning of their internship can help guide them throughout their time with your company. It is important to have realistic expectations for what they can do, and to also provide meaningful work, but assigning various menial tasks can also lighten your load and keep them busy.
Determine a long-term project: Along with the list of tasks, you should sit down with your intern within their first two weeks to decide on a long term project. This gives them an opportunity to have some agency in their internship experience. They will feel like they have been assigned meaningful work, and that they are being given an opportunity to focus on the skills they are most interested in developing.
Make time for them: Your intern, and all staff for that matter, will thrive if they feel like a valued member of your community. Include them in company-wide meetings, team meetings, and planning stages.

When To Avoid An Intern

asian man looking at his watch while holding his glasses and sitting in front of a laptop — *If you don’t have a month or more to commit to closely managing someone new, it might not be a good time for an intern.*

For some businesses, the new energy and fresh perspectives that interns offer might be worth the work. But you might find that the time and energy it takes to train temporary, unskilled workers isn’t worth it. Avoid hiring interns if:

You’re too busy to train and supervise another employee. The goal is, of course, to have interns who can function like an independent member of the team, albeit with smaller, less critical projects. But getting them to that point might take some time. If you don’t have a month or more to commit to closely managing someone new, it might not be a good time for an intern.
You don’t have the materials and tools they will need. The biggest perk of having an intern is the unpaid labor. They do, however, still need tools to succeed. Are you comfortable providing a computer or laptop, work phone, and office supplies? If your budget is too tight for that, skip an intern until your business is in a better financial position.
Your office is under-staffed. You might think that hiring an intern can replace an employee, but if your office already has very few employees you need to reconsider. Not only is replacing an employee with an intern in violation of one of the six federal criteria for unpaid internships (“Internships do not displace regular employees.”), but you will likely see a decrease in work quality from your overwhelmed, unpaid intern.
You can’t clearly state what they will be learning. Interns are there to support you in your daily tasks, and the one thing they need in return is a learning experience. If you’re just hiring an intern to do coffee runs, then you will also be violating federal rules and at risk of a lawsuit.

An internship might not be a good fit for every business, but there are some talented young people who are willing to learn and who can provide valuable support to your business. You will need to invest some time, but if you empower and support your interns, you might end up with an amazing asset to the company in the long run.

Tag: business growth